Professor Susanne Schech

Position

Qualifications

BA Hons in Geography, University of DurhamPhD in Geography, University of Durham

Teaching interests

I teach broadly in the field of development studies. Special interests lie in gender and development, and culture and development, and I contribute to topics on sustainable development and international work integrated learning.

Research interests

Social and cultural geographies of migration, ethnicity and race (esp. refugee and migrant settlement, constructions of racial and ethnic identities)

In critical development studies my work has focused on analysing the conceptual premises on which development policies and development scholarship are based. Empirically this work has centred on the role of ICTs in development, the participatory turn, gender and poverty reduction strategies. My current research project examines the impacts of international volunteering on host organisations and volunteers, as well as on constructions of development cooperation as partnership.

In social and cultural geography my research has examined how migrants and refugees reconstruct their identities in Australia within terrains and settlement contexts that are structured by race, class, gender, and underpinned by often implicit notions of modernity and development. Currently my attention is drawn to the ways in which the experiences and impacts of migration manifest differently in different places, and how sub-state regions shape these social transformations through migration.

Schech, S.B. (2015). Integrating humanitarian migrants in Australia: Policies and Practices. In Proceedings of the 8th Together Day Immigration Policy Forum. Seoul: The Center for Asia and Diaspora, Konkuk University. 8th Together Day Immigration Policy Forum. Seoul, South Korea. May 2015, pp. 3-17.

Haggis, J., Schech, S.B. and Rainbird, S.J. (2007). From refugee to settlement case worker: cultural brokers in the contact zone and the border work of identity. International Journal of Diversity in Organisations, Communities and Nations, 7(1) pp. 237-248.

Schech, S.B. (2002). Wired for change: the links between ICTs and development discourses. Journal of International Development, 14(1) pp. 13-23. [10.1002/jid.870][Scopus]

Schech, S.B. (2002). Wired for change: the links between ICTs and development discourses. Journal of International Development, 14(1) pp. 13-23. [10.1002/jid.870][Scopus]

Professional and community engagement

I collaborate with Scope Global on research into international development volunteering, with a view to better understand and enhance the impact of volunteer programs and to develop research capacity in this area.

I have almost a decade of experience in designing, managing and delivering gender training courses in Indonesia and Australia under the Australian Agency for International Development. I led training teams in over 20 week-long Gender Mainstreaming and Analysis training courses in Indonesia. Currently I provide management and advice to the Gender Consortium at Flinders University which I helped to establish. The Gender Consortium is committed to gender sensitive policy, planning and project implementation in Australia, Asia and the Pacific Region, and Africa. It has conducted several intensive Australian Leadership Award Fellowship programs on themes including trafficking of women, gender and disability, women's and children's safety, and gender violence prevention. It has research expertise in gender auditing, women and security, and applied policy research on gender equity.

In recent years I have represented Flinders University on the steering committee Don Dunstan Foundation Refugee Research Project which conducts an annual conference on refugee and migration research across the South Australian universities, the Migration Update conferences.